The popularity of Youtube has risen exponentially since its inception in 2005, and now it is one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This platform is known for its “relatable” vloggers, who differentiate themselves from “celebrity culture” by creating content that is closely connected to a general audience.

But for some of the luckier influencers, climbing the rungs to stardom have changed them for the worse, altering their personalities and causing them to lose the relatability that originally made them so appealing. 

Around 2016, teenage and family vlogging started to become beloved categories on Youtube. Vloggers who labeled themselves as “relatable,” such as Haley Pham and the ACE Family, quickly entered the spotlight. Teenage vloggers like Pham created content such as back to school videos, morning routines and other relaxed vlogs that were similar to the lives of average high school girls.

Meanwhile, family vloggers like the ACE Family were able to attract viewers by sharing heartfelt videos of their domestic life. 

Yet, as these channels began to gain fame and earn more money, their content began to lose its relatability and eventually isolated itself from a majority of their audience.  Although making money doing something one loves is great for the content creator, some viewers become unhappy and critical when the influencers become ignorant and entitled. 

A recent example of this is shown in the ACE Family’s newest content. Even though their channel started off with simple Q&As and prank videos, their recent popularity has showered them in riches. But their audience did not become enraged until they posted a video titled “Working at a Restaurant for 24 Hours Challenge.” In the vlog, the wife Catherine Paiz and her husband Austin McBroom were shown working at a friend’s restaurant, waiting tables and serving as cashier. 

Making a challenge out of an average person’s daily work life offended many of their viewers, who were shocked at how ignorant and out of touch the couple was acting in their new stage of fame. 

Another instance of popularity changing a personality comes in the form of Pham, an 18-year-old “relatable” teen vlogger who uploads daily videos. This example is more personal to us since she was a content creator we often watched. Although her channel also had a humble start, she quickly skyrocketed into fame and now has millions of subscribers. 

However, Pham lost our subscription as well. For someone who still labels herself as a “relatable Youtuber,” thousand dollar clothes hauls and buying a mansion at age 18 with her boyfriend of one year just doesn’t seem to be what her original supporters had subscribed to her to see. Another example of the downfall of her recent “relatable” content was when she uploaded a video trying to tie-dye her iPhone and Airpods, knowing full well that airpods cannot be fully submerged into water. For many of her viewers, this content seemed unnecessary and privileged since she risked two perfectly fine apple products for a seemingly irrelevant video. 

Although acquiring  fame and fortune is not necessarily a bad thing, the underlying reason subscribers lose interest in an influencer’s content is because of the changes these factors bring to the creator. New content and personalities can leave some audience members feeling dissatisfied and disappointed.